Dealer shall get display

Commandments bid

Brad Akins waited until after 10:15 p.m. Wednesday before he logged onto eBay - just an hour before the end of the 10-day auction to sell a well-known Ten Commandments display.

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By that point, bidding for the controversial hanging that once graced the breezeway of the Barrow County Courthouse had reached $6,400. He decided to make a move.

Less than an hour later, Akins was the proud owner of the display that sparked a two-year legal battle over the legality of displaying the Ten Commandments in a county courthouse. His winning bid: $7,600.

"I don't know what I would bid to, I really don't know," Akins said Thursday. "I'm glad I didn't have to find out."

Akins, owner of Akins Ford Dodge Jeep Chrysler Plymouth in Winder, won the framed copy of the Ten Commandments that private group Ten Commandments-Georgia put on the Internet auction site eBay hoping to raise money to pay for legal fees Barrow County incurred fighting an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit over the display.

During the 10 days of bidding, which ended just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, 14 people put up a total of 65 different bids, according to Ten Commandments-Georgia. In all, more than half of the people who bid on the display offered more than $5,000 for it, the group said.

In September 2003, an anonymous resident, identified as John Doe in court records, backed by the ACLU, filed a federal lawsuit over the display that hung in a breezeway of the courthouse in Winder.

The county fought the lawsuit for almost two years, but in July, officials agreed to remove the display and settle the lawsuit. In addition, the county must pay $150,001 to John Doe for legal fees and damages.

In a Thursday news release, Ten Commandments-Georgia called the ACLU's litigation a "frivolous lawsuit."

In all, the group has raised more than $210,000 of the more than $400,000 Barrow County has spent either defending the lawsuit or as a part of the settlement. Barrow County has paid all but about $41,000 of its legal bills, not including the cost it had to pay to John Doe as a part of the settlement.

Akins said he plans to display the Ten Commandments either at his dealership or at his home. One day, he hopes, the display can be returned to the courthouse.

"You never know what tomorrow brings," Akins said. "At one time it was legal to have them displayed (in courthouses). It no longer is. Times change. I think it would pretty neat to be a part of that."